Does Tammy Baldwin deserve a second term in the U.S. Senate?

Welcome to "Political Posturing," featuring opposing views on current issues important to Wisconsin's business community. In this column, Wisconsin Business Alliance Board President Brad Werntz and conservative columnist David Blaska offer their opinions from the left and the right, respectively.

You bet, because she stands for all the right things.

By Brad Werntz

Everybody loves Tammy. No, really, it’s true. For example: How many one-name politicians do we have in Wisconsin? Walker, Ryan, Johnson, Soglin, none of them count. Fitzgerald, Vukmir, Vos, Risser, and many others don’t count, either. Why? Because when you say Scott, Paul, Ron, Paul, Scott, Leah, Fred, or any other first name, no one has any idea who you’re talking about. But when you say Tammy — well, admit it now, we all know there’s only one.

This isn’t because her first name is unique. I mean, seriously: Does “Robin” mean anything to anybody? Anybody? Batman references aside, who’s that? Robin Vos, now, we know that guy, though most of us call him something other than his name out loud (admittedly, it’s not very nice). But Tammy? Yeah, we know her well. We like her here in Wisconsin. We love her. She’s our senator, and she deserves a long career.

Why? Well for one thing she has a 100 percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign, and also a 100 percent rating from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. The League of Conservation Voters gives her a 97 percent rating, and the American Civil Liberties Union has her at 94 percent. What do these numbers mean? They mean that Tammy supports equity, health care, women, the environment, and social justice.

Tammy does even better when you consider other numbers: The Club For Growth ranks her at 5 percent, while Americans For Prosperity and FreedomWorks both give her 0 percent. What does this mean? It means that Tammy doesn’t support corporate government, where business interests come before people, workers, the social safety net, and our shared concerns.

Tammy is a leader in the Senate and a hard worker, serving on many committees and subcommittees. She’s written the fifth most laws of anybody on the Hill and, importantly in this time of severe partisanship, almost half of them have Republican co-sponsors. Compare that to Ron Johnson, who has written a few more laws than Tammy, but has ZERO co-sponsors from across the aisle.

Tammy deserves a second term, and more. Let’s send her to D.C. every chance we get.